


Please Rewind This Videotape Before Returning It

by fizzyblogic (phizzle)



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Multi, Polyamory, WIP Amnesty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-12
Updated: 2010-09-12
Packaged: 2017-11-14 16:18:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/fizzyblogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disjointed, time-jumpy-y narrative about Gwen and Rhys being poly. WIP Amnesty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Rewind This Videotape Before Returning It

It starts out like a normal April Fool’s Day. When the door opens, instead of the usual _woop woop woop_ Gwen hears _Nod ya head, the black suits’ comin’, let me see you nod ya head like this_ and sees Ianto hiding a smile.

“Very funny,” she says. Owen’s rolling his eyes, Tosh stifling a laugh. Ianto takes a small bow.

“Thank you. I will not be outdone.” Gwen’s eyes flick to Owen’s and they acknowledge the challenge, silently. She catches Tosh’s eye on the way back to looking at her screen, and smiles.

“Children, children, children,” Jack tuts as he comes out of his office. Ianto hands him a cup of coffee and Jack takes it without even looking at him. “Your quaint customs are interfering with our work, so get _back_ to it, please.”

Gwen turns to her computer, trying not to laugh, but when she sees what’s on the screen, she can’t help it.

“Something wrong, Gwen?” Jack asks, surrounded by an air of fake innocence.

“Oh nothing, no, everything’s fine, Jack. It’s just that the Rift has somewhat … changed shape, on the monitors.”

Ianto checks over her shoulder as he passes. “Oh, that’s just juvenile.”

Owen snorts. Tosh presses her lips together. Gwen allows her mouth to crack into a grin.

“Hey. Mine was no worse than yours.” Jack grins at Ianto, that particular grin he saves only for him, and Gwen is reminded of exactly what she’s been trying to avoid lately.

|| «

“Oh fuck, Jack,” Gwen pants, shirt half off, hands fumbling with the buttons on his trousers. “ _Fuck_.”

“That’s pretty much where I’m at, yeah,” Jack agrees, managing to remove her bra and shirt without breaking full-body contact.

“Oh fuck,” she says again, getting her jeans undone just as his trousers hit the floor and it shouldn’t surprise her that he doesn’t wear underwear, she just didn’t really think about it. Now she is, shit shit shit, now she’ll be thinking about it whenever she sees him, but nothing really matters at this second because Jack’s produced a condom out of thin air and now they’re all protected and ready to go and maybe soon she won’t feel like she’s dying from the crotch out.

«

She’s glad Rhys brought it up first. Something about it just seems … right, somehow, when he talks about his mate’s girlfriend’s cousin’s friend’s workmate who has two boyfriends and they both know about each other and they don’t mind it. “It’s called polysomething, I think,” he says. He’s terrible at hiding what he wants, it’s written all over his face. “Like those polygamists, except it’s not marriage and not illegal and it’s … well, actually, it’s not much like those polygamists, not the ones you see on the telly. It’s more like – more like cheating on someone, but without the cheating. If … that makes sense.”

“So you’re telling me,” Gwen says, slowly, faking having a hard time keeping up, “that some people have open relationships and see other people, and everybody knows about it.”

“Yeah.” Rhys fidgets. “Mad, isn’t it?”

“Oh I dunno.” This is so much fun, pretending to be casual when inside she’s ready to head up a conga line. _There are more people like me, and Rhys might be one of them_ , was replaced on the way to her mouth with, “If it works for some people, all power to them.”

“Right. Yeah. Some people.” Rhys looks deeply into his tea for so long that Gwen wonders if he’s having a telepathic conversation with it. “Ever, er,” he continues once the cooling PG Tips has convinced him it’s a good idea, “thought about maybe … if you’re one of those people?”

She’s all ready with another oh-this-idea-is-all-so-new-to-me _I dunno_ , but when she lifts her face to say it, she sees the look on his. She stops. “Rhys,” she says, dropping every hint of teasing, “are you okay? Is there – is there someone else, do you want to see someone else?”

“No, no, not – there’s no one, Gwen.” She can read him like a book, he’s telling the truth. “I just … wondered what your opinion on it is. That’s all.” There, that one was a lie.

She kisses him, a quick reassuring peck. “Rhys. You daft bugger. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anybody, all right? And if you want to talk about maybe having an open relationship, then we can talk about that.”

“Really? I mean – you mean it, really? No joking, you’re not messing me about?”

“I promise.” She holds her hand up as proof. “I’m not taking the piss. I’ve thought about this before, you know.”

“You have? Have you ever … you know …”

“No.”

“But you’ve thought about it?”

She nods, sincere for once. “Sometimes.”

“Well, um. You fancy it?” He sounds so hopeful.

“Yeah, why not. Maybe try it out a bit, see how it goes.” She has the strangest sensation, like she’s falling, but the sofa hasn’t moved and neither has she. “Hey. I love you.”

He leans over and kisses her. “I love you too.”

»

“I was wondering – I mean, you know, I don’t know if you’ll want to, if any of … I mean, _I_ want to, it’s just –”

“Rhys,” Gwen cuts him off. “Spit it out, come on. Before Christmas would be nice.”

“Sod off.” He looks genuinely wounded, but only for a second. “Listen, I er. I love you, Gwen Cooper. And I was wondering …” She watches, and she can feel her eyes going wider and wider as he sinks towards the ground. “If you – if maybe I could ask you – Christ, Gwen, my back’s gone.”

“Oh, here, lie down,” she reaches for him, guides him to the sofa. He lies there wincing for a moment. “That better?”

“Thanks, yeah.” He shifts, winces some more.

“Do you need me to get your prescription?” It’s in the cupboard in the bathroom, or wait, is it – did she see it in the kitchen yesterday?

“No, no, I’ll be fine.” He looks at her and laughs. “Bloody typical, this. I try to do something romantic and end up flat on my back.”

“Well. Wouldn’t be the first time.” She quirks a smile and there it is, that laugh she likes.

“Get away, you.” He pauses for a second, just looking at her, and the laugh hasn’t left his eyes. “Might as well ask anyway. Will you marry me, Gwen?”

A million thoughts go through her head. Where the fuck Jack is, that time she kissed Owen in a morgue drawer, the feel of Tosh’s skin, the way Rhys looks at her when he comes, the future she used to dream of, and suddenly, now, his eyes and a heartfelt question and it’s less than a second between him asking and her answering, “Of course I will, what do you think?”

«

Jack offers her a job and Gwen takes it instantly. She tells Rhys she’s been promoted to Special Ops while they’re having dinner with his girlfriend, an annoyingly sweet woman Gwen has resigned herself to liking. Beth, she being said girlfriend, is very impressed.

“Will you get a new uniform?” she asks, with a little too much gleam in her eye. Gwen shifts.

“Plainclothes,” she says, and wants to laugh. Rhys and Beth have the exact same slightly disappointed look, and then oh – it hits her. Oh. _Oh_. “But I get to keep my old uniform,” she adds, not really looking at either of them. “You know, for emergencies. Just in case.”

“Right,” Rhys and Beth chorus, and it’s so odd how Gwen thinks of the two of them as a couple, and her and Rhys as a couple (primaries, that’s the word, Beth’s his secondary), both at the same time, with enough jealousy that she waited until Beth was around to boast about her promotion, but not so much that she hates her or anything. Gwen watches her play with a straw, stirring ice around in her glass as she talks, and yeah, she definitely doesn’t hate her.

“So,” Rhys says, snapping Gwen out of whatever moment she’s had, “are we going somewhere else for another drink? Time to celebrate, wouldn’t you say?” He beams at Gwen, pride stamped all over every feature, and Gwen feels a rush of something.

“Why don’t we go home?” she says, trying to include Beth in the invitation without saying it out loud. “We could open that bottle of red.”

“Oh.” Beth nods. “Yeah, no, you’re right, you should celebrate just the two of you. I’ll uh, I could do with an early night anyway. Got work in the morning.”

Before Rhys can speak, Gwen jumps in with, “No, I – I didn’t mean just me and Rhys.”

“Eh?” Rhys is looking at her, completely puzzled. Beth is never at their flat when Gwen is, he mostly goes round to hers. Gwen thinks of the conversations where they set down the rules, her saying _This flat is ours, yours and mine, can we keep it that way?_ , and hopes they’ll get the hint.

After a couple of seconds of half-gulped sentences about which taxi firms are best to get from Gwen and Rhys’s flat to Beth’s later that night, Gwen realises she has to spell it out. “Beth,” she says, suddenly becoming aware that she’s taken Rhys’s hand, “why don’t you come home with us?”

Rhys blinks a few times. “You – you mean – I mean, you’d want to –”

“Only if it’s okay. With both of you.” She’s fairly sure it will be, but it’s not a certainty and in one split second when she has no idea how this night will go, the knowledge and reality drops itself into place: she likes Beth, she’d like to have sex with Rhys and Beth, and if they say no she’ll have to deal with it.

“Okay by me,” Rhys says, eyebrows up, four Christmases waiting behind his growing smile.

“Yeah,” and Beth is trying to suppress a quite considerable smile. Gwen feels warmer. “Me too.”

“Right! I’ll get the cheque.”

It’s not like she’s thought it would be, or fantasised about (a hundred times, maybe, who knows) – it’s Rhys naked just like always, and her naked just like she always is with him, and then Beth naked, which is a gorgeous sight. Gwen always thought having a threesome would involve a lot of the man paying the women attention, but now she has Beth in her bed, she wants to kiss every inch of her. She ends up between them, their skin a contrast to hers, and for one second while Rhys is inside her and she’s got half a hand inside Beth, Gwen floats out of her body and thinks, _we look just like three keys of a piano_. She twists the angle to press her thumb to Beth’s clit, and imagines she cries out in sharp notes.

»

April Fools Day, she and Owen mock up an alien embryo sack in the infirmary, slip a sedative into Ianto’s coffee, and while he’s passed out, they arrange him so that it looks like he gave birth. He yells when he comes to, yells and yells, and shoots them glares as they laugh at him.

“That’s not fair,” he says once the shock wears off. “It’s after noon, you’re not supposed to fool now.”

They say nothing. Gwen may have damaged some internal organs trying not to laugh.

“Well if you _will_ say you’re unbeatable,” she hears Jack say as they make their way back to their computers, dissolving in giggles.

“I believe what I said was, I will not be outdone,” Ianto answers, huffily. “Just you wait until next year,” he calls after them.

“Ooh I’m so scared,” Gwen and Owen shout back, almost in unison but not quite.

They’re kept busy with the usual hoaxes for the day, Toshiko weeding them out expertly, and all in all it’s slow for genuine Rift activity. Jack calls her into his office at around the time normal people get to go home, and from the way he smiles at her, Gwen knows this is it.

“Jack,” she starts, before he can get her sidetracked, “listen, I need to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah, what about?” He folds his arms. Not a good sign.

“This … thing, you and me. I – I just don’t think that it’s working.” She bites the inside of her mouth.

“Right,” he says, meaning ‘Elaborate, now’, arms still folded and shoulders hunching slightly. Really, really not good.

“Well – the sex is great. You _know_ the sex is great.” He flashes her that old charming grin, but it’s gone in a second. Shit. “It’s just – I like you, I really do, I just … think we work better as friends. Don’t you agree?” She can’t quite stop herself adding, “Please don’t sack me.”

“Why – why would I _sack_ you?” It’s always weird hearing something British in Jack’s accent. “Torchwood needs you. You and I, we’re totally separate to that.”

“Right. But you and me, Jack, you and me. It’s not working, is it?” She throws it in as a question because _something_ needs to shake an answer out of him. An opinion. _Anything_.

He looks at her for a long, long time. “I guess not,” he says at last.

“It’s not just me, is it? Am I being a total idiot?” She hates even raising that kind of a question.

“No. No, you’re right. We’re better off as friends.” As far as she can ever read him, he means it.

“Besides, you’ve got your eye fixed elsewhere,” she says, starting to relax. It’s done, it’s okay, they’ve ended it and they’ll be all right.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jack protests, not even a little bit convincing. She laughs, some of it escaping in a snort. He smirks a little and shrugs. “He’s kind of hung up on someone else.”

Gwen tries not to think about Lisa, most of the time. “Yeah. Well, not forever, eh?”

“Maybe.” Jack shrugs again. “Now I did actually call you in here for work, not just so you could dump me.”

“Sorry.” She gives him a quarter-look, gone by the time his voice hardens to official.

«

“So – what’s it like?” They’ve claimed their corner of the sofa, Gwen and Tosh, pizza boxes spread around, Owen eating his at his desk and typing with one hand. Tosh flickers her eyes between her pizza and Gwen’s face as she continues, “Being poly, I mean.”

Gwen blows some air out. “Well, it’s – just like being in a relationship with one other person, I s’pose, just there’s more of you.”

“Don’t you get jealous or anything?” Owen asks through half a mouthful.

“Sometimes,” Gwen shrugs. “When Rhys started seeing this other woman, I thought, is she prettier than me, is she better in bed, you know.” She takes a bite of her pizza and chews, swallows. “Then I realised it doesn’t matter. Rhys still loves me, I love him. He likes Beth, and … so do I.” She stifles a smile.

“Wh- wha- you mean you –” Owen splutters, dangerously close to the equipment.

“It’s called a triad,” Jack cuts in. “Kinda like a threesome, only it’s not just about sex.”

“You’ve been in one before, then?” Gwen asks. There’s an imperceptible pause, like everybody holds their breath waiting for him to answer.

“Yeah. Long time ago. Or not so long, depending on your timeline.”

He says these things, weird things, and nobody ever asks him to explain.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gwen watches him.

Jack gives her that look that means _if you don’t leave it, I will make you_. “Nothing. It’s in the past.”

“So are you … I mean, is it an exclusive triad? Like monogamy, but with three?” Tosh is still looking at her, open curiosity and maybe something else.

“Not really. If anybody else comes along for any of us, as long as everybody knows, it’s fine.” Gwen shrugs a thoroughly casual shrug.

“I could never do that,” Owen decrees. “Threesomes, I’m all for it, but sharing partners around? Couldn’t do it.”

“Well some of us are more mature than you,” Gwen throws at him.

He smirks. “I’m sure you are.”

Tosh is still sneaking glances at her when the conversation moves on to who could beat who in a fight, a weevil or a vampire from Buffy. There’s a deviation into Owen soliloquising over Buffy’s low-cut tops, which Gwen uses to ask Tosh quietly, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She smiles that small, jerking smile Gwen’s seen a few times in two days she’s known her. “Just thinking, that’s all.”

“What about?” Gwen tilts her head slightly, and Tosh looks away.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” She gets up to go back to her desk, and Gwen watches her progress, tuning Owen out as he moves on to what a prick Angel was.

 

 

 

 

\---------------------------  
The initial idea I had for this was Tosh/Gwen, in hiding during The Year That Never Was, and this lot was the backstory for it. I ended up entirely running out of energy, and then the Torchwood muses fled, so I didn't actually ... get to the Tosh/Gwen. The last scene here was the start of them dancing around each other, and there's a mention in a fast-forward scene of them being together (sort of a mention, anyway), but alas, I didn't do more. They would have been adorable, though.

Also I meant to have more about Beth, and reading this back now I realise the piano keys thing comes off as weird; Beth is black, and if I'd had the energy to finish and edit this, that would have been clearer and less ... weirdly put.


End file.
